Space Science

Space science is the study of everything beyond our planet, from the Sun and the planets to the rocks that fall to Earth from space. It also asks how we explore it: how spacecraft travel, how astronauts get home safely and whether life could exist elsewhere. A hands-on session lets children and grown-ups explore these big questions with real objects and simple experiments.

A meteorite is a piece of rock or metal from space that has survived the fall through our atmosphere and landed on Earth. While it's still out in space, it's called a meteoroid. The streak of light it makes as it races through the sky is a meteor, which many people call a shooting star. Most meteorites are stony, while others are mostly iron and nickel or a mix of the two. Many are older than any rock found on Earth.

When a spacecraft comes back to Earth, it's travelling incredibly fast. It pushes into the air so hard that the air in front of it is squashed and gets extremely hot, hot enough to glow. A heat shield on the outside of the capsule protects it. Some heat shields are designed to char and slowly wear away, carrying the heat with them, so the astronauts inside stay safe.

Much bigger than most pictures show. A clever way to see it is to build a scale model with a roll of toilet paper, where each sheet stands for a set distance. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are all bunched up near the Sun at the start of the roll. Then the gaps get huge, and the outer planets end up far across the room, or the field. It's a simple trick that makes enormous distances easy to picture.

Every living thing on Earth carries DNA, the set of instructions that tells it how to grow. Scientists search for signs of life on Mars and other worlds by testing soil and rock samples. You can try a version of this yourself, because DNA can be drawn out of living things with everyday ingredients until you can see the strands with your own eyes.

Yes, and it's one to share. Children love big questions, and space is full of them. Handling real objects and seeing results for themselves makes the science stick. Grown-ups tend to learn just as much, and the questions on the walk back to the tent can go on for days.

You might also like Astronomy, Explosive Science and Dinosaur Fossil Dig.

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